Empire Builders: Berlin

Invaded by the French, taken over by the Nazis, occupied by the Russians and then divided down the middle by competing ideologies in the Cold War - to this day, Berlin wears its scars.

We take a look at the history of the city starting from the era of Prussian kings through to the unification of Germany under Bismarck. After descent into World War 1, the chaotic and creative Weimar Republic emerged, before coming to an abrupt end with the arrival of Hitler and the Nazis. After Germany’s defeat in the Second World War, Berlin was divided at the historic Potsdam conference in 1945 and its division would become a symbol for the Cold War. The city endured an historic airlift as an island city behind the Iron Curtain. The division would last almost half a century, symbolised by the erecting of the Berlin Wall.

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